"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

On August 1, 1936, Hitler opened the XIth Olympiad. Musical fanfares
directed by the famous composer Richard Strauss announced the dictator's
arrival to the largely German crowd. Hundreds of athletes in opening
day regalia marched into the stadium, team by team in alphabetical
order. Inaugurating a new Olympic ritual, a lone runner arrived bearing a
torch carried by relay from the site of the ancient Games in Olympia, Greece.
[...] Concerted propaganda
efforts continued well after the Olympics with the international
release in 1938 of "Olympia," the controversial documentary directed by
German film maker and Nazi sympathizer Leni Riefenstahl. She was commissioned by the Nazi regime to produce this film about the 1936 Summer Games. Germany emerged victorious from the XIth Olympiad. German athletes
captured the most medals, and German hospitality and organization won
the praises of visitors. Most newspaper accounts echoed the New York Times report
that the Games put Germans "back in the fold of nations," and even made
them "more human again." Some even found reason to hope that this
peaceable interlude would endure.

The 1936 Olympics whitewashed the brutality of the Nazi regime in Germany and led to acceptance of Hitler's criminal regime. The 2008 Olympics whitewashed the brutality of the Communist regime in China further legitimizing that criminal regime. In 2022 it will add insult to injury by returning to China and making this decision amidst a human rights crackdown where more than 200 lawyers and human rights activists have been detained with some facing 15 year prison sentences.